The present invention relates to photographic cameras, and more particularly to a "drop-in loading" camera in which a film container such as a film cassette or a film magazine is inserted axially into a film supply chamber of the camera.
One of easy loading cameras placed on the market is a drop-in loading camera. In the drop-in loading camera, a bottom door is opened for opening a film supply chamber and a film entrance slot at the bottom of the camera so as to allow a film container to be inserted axially into the bottom opening to the film supply chamber with threading a film leader previously drawn out of the container into a film passage way. In general, the length of film leader previously drawn out of the container depends on the manufactures or film types. Some film containers have a drawn film leader longer than the distance between the film supply chamber and a film take-up chamber of the camera. The forward end of the long drawn leader, which is liable to be caught in the entrance slot, disables the container to be dropped into the film supply chamber for loading. Even if a proper length of film leader is drawn out of the container, there is appeared the same problem in the case of either cameras in which the distance between the film supply and film take-up chambers is shortened for miniaturization or half-size cameras.
For avoiding the problem in such drop-in film loading procedure, it is required for operators to rewind the drawn film leader into the container by manually rotating the spool of the container, leaving just enough film leader to reach the film take-up chamber, before film loading. However, such film loading procedure including the rewinding operation is troublesome and contrary to the aim of easy loading.